Piracy and the historical study of it has brought many problems for states and scholars alike. In the early modern period, both legal and illegal maritime predation was a common occurrence in seas and oceans across the globe. Piracy in all its forms was, and still is, a worldwide phenomenon. As has been recently shown, too, it is persistent, ebbing and surging in response to political and economic pressures but never dying out completely. Though piracy therefore reaches far beyond Europe historically and geographically, the expansion of European maritime empires in the early modern period exacerbated existing and created new problems of piracy, which states had to navigate and address. At times, European states addressed this problem in different ways according to their resources and interests. They might attempt to contain piracy to certain regions, co-opt maritime raiders for the state's benefit, deny maritime predation or their involvement in it, or suppress predation militarily and legally. As we have written elsewhere, contrary to the popularly held myth of pirates as the common enemies of all peoples, states only exercised power over pirates occasionally and for specific purposes. This present volume extends that argument, deeply examining the relationship between European states and maritime predation, especially in Asian, Atlantic, and European waters between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries.

In the early modern period, there were many different forms of maritime predation. Most raids were deemed lawful, conducted by either public or private agents of widely recognised states, but a significant minority was considered unlawful and therefore branded “piracy” by some or all of the states. Hans Hagerdal points to the “porous line between state-condoned warfare and sheer piracy,” meaning that at times the only difference between the two was one of perception or interpretation. States therefore eagerly sought to draw clear lines to distinguish between them in law and popular perception in order to justify their own predation and vilify that which diminished their power. Definitions of piracy abounded in early modern law, especially in the nascent field of international law that some European jurists tried to create. But due to competing interests between states, making a universal definition of piracy was easier said than done. Since there were so many ways to be a pirate, and no one could agree at the time what piracy was, one of the first problems scholars come across is a definitional one.

This chapter provides an introduction to psychodynamic theory as applied to settings outwith the specialist psychotherapy clinic, paving the way for the chapters that follow in Part 4. An individual’s internal world affects how they relate to others. Others may be unconsciously invited into playing old roles that are familiar to the individual (such as rejecting, not listening, criticising), even though these roles bring difficulty and distress to both sides. This chapter explores how these powerful but sometimes ‘invisible’ interpersonal dynamics may play out between service users and staff in settings where the human relationship is at the fore (such as schools, social service agencies, and hospitals). We also discuss splitting within a clinical team and other system dynamics. In circumstances where services and professionals can sustain a good-enough therapeutic environment in the face of unconscious invitations to repeat a problematic relationship, trust may develop between service user and service and many people are able to discover new ways of forming relationships. This depends partly on the capacities and current state of the person using a service, but also, crucially, on the capacity of the professionals and services to observe and be reflective about both sides of the relationship.

This chapter explores the complex area of working with patients who experience relational difficulties and who may function predominantly at a borderline level of psychological organization. These patients are influenced by early traumatic experiences, which can shape the therapeutic encounter. They often don’t have the kind of early experience that enables them to develop the capacity to recognise feelings and to know that they are not dangerous, that they are bearable, and will pass. Acts of self-harm are frequently a response to manage unbearable feelings. These and the experience of suicidal thoughts can be understood as a wish to get rid of these feelings. The nature of self-harm and what it evokes in the clinician are discussed. Individuals with these difficulties have often experienced a lack of a consistent and containing other and can enter crisis in response to experiences of rejection or threats of abandonment. This is important both during therapy but particularly when ending the therapy. If we understand what underpins the relational difficulties that these patients have, we can take them into account in the therapeutic work. Some adaptations of technique when working with patients with borderline level difficulties are considered.

This chapter provides a brief introduction to the relational dynamics underlying ‘multiple exclusion homelessness’ and an approach to working in this area. Adults experiencing multiple exclusion homelessness have often, during their developmental years, experienced multiple homes, disrupted attachments, un-forecasted endings, multiple and short-lived figures of support – all experiences that can lead a person to develop an understandable anxiety about trusting anyone to remain stable in their life. These dynamics may inadvertently be recreated in the person’s adult life through the impermanency of different organisations they are involved with. Multiple exclusion homelessness can be understood as a late emerging symptom of underlying difficulties in someone’s relationships with care. A psychologically informed approach for staff working in the homeless sector is outlined. The staff-service user relationship, while often viewed as important within mainstream services, is commonly seen as a vehicle through which treatments can be completed rather than as the treatment itself. By contrast, a psychologically informed service for people experiencing multiple exclusion homelessness understands that the reverse is often more accurate: that the tasks and activities are really just the vehicle through which a relationship can develop that carries the possibility of developing a sense of safety, trust, and continuity.